These Lifeless Things
by hufflelit
Summary: When Lily is kidnapped during an Order mission, the Marauders are forced to consider their own, and each other's, roles in the war ahead. MWPP-era.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I'm traditionally bad at sticking with multi-chapter fics, but I'm really fond of this one, so I'm hoping to see it through. The early Order fascinates me and I adore the Marauders, and this is my first attempt at a Marauders-in-the-Order fic. Let me know what you think!

**Disclaimer**: JKR is fiction's queen. I bow before her.

* * *

Lily woke to the sound of dripping water.

At first, she couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from. Nothing made that noise at home. She opened her eyes and saw that she was in a cellar or something, which also didn't make sense.

She went to the door and opened it, and found herself in Diagon Alley, but the street was full of screams and explosions and jets of multicolored light, and now she remembered: the distress call from Benjy on watch in the Alley, rushing with James and Remus to the scene, finding Benjy pinned down by Death Eaters…

She threw herself into the fray, managed to disable a short Death Eater who was attempting – badly – to set fire to the Magical Menagerie. The kneazle in the window was screaming, and Lily put out the fire before blasting the Death Eater that was dueling Benjy nearly to Gringotts.

"Good show, Evans!" Benjy called, the blood covering half his face so thick it looked black.

She wheeled around, looking for James, and spotted him nearly at the turning towards Knockturn Alley – he was holding his own against two attackers, and she started to run.

There was a little girl in the street clutching a woman who wouldn't get up, and Lily veered towards her, crouching as another curse flew over her head.

"Sweetheart, come with me," she began, checking for a pulse in the woman's neck, and then the little girl screamed, and everything exploded in stars.

Lily woke to the sound of dripping water.

Her mouth was so dry that her tongue felt like carpet, but whatever water was dripping wouldn't be enough to drink.

She was in a cellar or something. She was looking at the ceiling, because there was a window near the top of it, which meant she must be lying down.

Lily closed her eyes and tried to think, but her brain felt like it was wrapped in gauze. She was aware enough to realize that this was probably a blessing, and also that she should probably get rid of it as soon as possible.

She tried to focus on her limbs and bringing sense back into them. After a few moments of concentration on her bare calves, she could confirm that she was, in fact, lying on her back. The floor was stone, but warm, which meant she'd been lying here for a while.

The brush of fabric on her thighs told her that her shorts were still on, which was a good thing – she'd seen some terrible mutilations in the last year that didn't bear thinking about. Her wrists were bound, which was decidedly not a good thing, but they were bound in front of her, which could have been worse.

Her body slowly came back together, reattaching itself bit by bit to her brain. As her stomach and throat returned, she found they were already tight with panic.

Lily tried sitting up, and then tried a lot harder when she heard something move behind her.

Struggling to her elbows, Lily craned round to see a figure squeeze itself deeper into the shadows. The person was so dirty and thin that it was hard to guess its age or sex at first, but the length of the hair falling in front of its face, and the maybe-pink color of its maybe-dress, made her guess young girl.

"Hello," she said softly. "I'm Lily."

"Lottie," the girl muttered after a moment.

"Where are we, Lottie?"

The girl's eyes went blank behind her curtain of greasy blond hair.

"Hell."

Lily's throat almost collapsed with panic then, but she took a deep breath and swallowed the cry that fought to get out.

"Okay. That was… slightly melodramatic."

Lily's neck was starting to cramp from craning, so she put a few minutes of concentrated effort into sitting up and scooting herself against a wall. Her bound hands didn't help, nor did the fact that all of her muscles still felt oddly like jelly. What had they done to her? It was much worse than a simple Stunning.

Lottie watched Lily's progress towards the wall with apparent confusion. In any case, she didn't offer to help.

"How long have I been here, Lottie?" Lily asked once she'd stopped panting from her crawl across the floor.

Lottie shrugged, chewing on the stub of one fingernail.

Lily, who really was doing her best to remain calm and friendly, rather than, say, vomit with terror, began to fray.

"Well, has it got dark since then?" she asked, nodding towards the window.

Lottie thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"Thank you." That was good. It meant the others might even know where she was, and still be formulating a rescue plan. Maybe. Somehow.

_James_. And Remus and Benjy – had they been hurt? Had they been taken? What would James say when they noticed she was missing?

No. Mustn't to think about James. It hurt too much.

"And who brought me in, Lottie?" Lily asked, distracting herself from the spiral of panic that awaited her, tugging at the corners of her mind.

"Dunno."

"Right," Lily said, her voice growing snappish. "How's this: instead of saying you don't know, how about you tell me everything you do know? Shall we try that? Now. Who brought me in here?"

Lottie looked startled, which was something, and appeared to think, which was better.

"Death Eaters," she whispered at last, cowering further and glancing towards the door. Lily's eyes flicked involuntarily to the same place. There was no lock, which meant it would be protected magically. She hadn't needed to check to know that she didn't have her wand. Its absence was gaping.

"Good. How did you know they were Death Eaters?"

"Because of their masks." Lottie's whisper was tight with dread, but Lily felt a surge of hope.

"Good! That's really good, Lottie!"

"Why is it good?" Lottie asked, showing a spark of something like irritation.

"Because if they still don't want us to see their faces, it means they think we might escape. Or they might let us go."

Not so likely, but worth a long shot in a dark alley, as her dad used to say. Thinking about Dad felt all right, somehow, so she did it some more.

Dad, a city man from birth to death, had loved the country with a passion, and taught his girls as much as he could about it in the little green patches around their corner of suburbia.

"What's that, Daddy?" they would ask, and he would answer without a moment's hesitation: vole or hawthorn or robin or clover or nettles or stoat or train whistle.

"Train whistle?" Petunia had scoffed once, ages ago, when she and Lily used to play at magic together. "It's a fairy horn, Daddy." And they'd called them fairy horns, just between them, until the Hogwarts letter.

Lily stopped breathing. Was it her imagination, or – no! There it was again! A train whistle, distant, but growing closer. They were near a rail line! It wasn't much, and hardly narrowed things down, but it was a link to the outside world. Life was still going on out there. Nothing had shattered when she was taken. Nothing had changed. James would come for her.

"Lottie," she said, then, "Lottie!" because the other girl seemed to have drifted off somewhere. "Listen to me. We're going to get out of here. We are."

"There is no out of here," Lottie whispered, her eyes half closed as though she were drugged.

"Yes, there is. You know how I know?"

The door swung open with a bang.

"Tell us, Evans," drawled a tall Death Eater, masked and hooded, standing silhouetted in the doorway. "We're all _dying_ to know."

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**A/N**: Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

"What d'you mean 'gone'?" Sirius demanded, his voice going high-pitched with panic as he took in Remus's tight face and James nearly retching on the ash he'd inhaled in his haste to Floo everyone they knew.

"Are you sure she wasn't just, you know – hiding?"

"Good thought, Sirius," James snapped, his eyes crazed and his movements clumsy as he chucked another fistful of powder into the flames. "She's probably back there now, wondering where the fuck we've all pissed off to." He launching himself nearly shoulder-deep into the fireplace, and Sirius turned away, shoving his hands through his hair.

"Right. What do we do, we need to…" he trailed off, looking to Remus for help, then wishing he hadn't because Remus suddenly looked impossibly old, his face gray and lined with fear, and – Christ – was that white in his hair? No, no – it was paint, paint from that old Squib lady's house where Remus was letting a room in exchange for handiwork. James and Lily had been helping when they'd been called up by Benjy, and Sirius had been late to join them, and now –

"Augh!" He gave a strangled cry to cut off the thought.

Distraction came in the form of Marlene, spinning for a moment in the fireplace before she stepped out onto the hearth and promptly burst into tears. Remus stepped forward and took her off to one side as James strode to Sirius.

"First," James said, his voice breaking, "first we figure out who took her."

"Did you recognize any-?"

"No," James moaned as he fisted his hands in his hair and doubled over, and Sirius started to understand what it would look like to be driven mad by grief, and prayed to anything that he never understood any better.

He pushed James into a chair, where James sat for a moment before springing back up, apparently unable to stay still.

People were starting to turn up in earnest now, and Marlene had stopped crying. Peter arrived pale and shaking, and took his position near the other three with a choked "My God, James, I…" He couldn't seem to go on, but James nodded in acknowledgment.

Alice and Frank appeared, announcing that the Aurors had put out bulletins and were following all the usual protocol, and should have leads within twelve hours.

"They'll have at least one lead, James," Alice said, gripping his shoulder. "We won't be fighting blind for long."

James squeezed her wrist, his lips tight and his eyes on Alice's shoes.

Moody turned up next, brandishing a scroll of parchment, which he slapped onto Sirius's kitchen table, pinning down its edges with dirty plates and a half-full mug of cold tea.

"This is a list of every suspected Death Eater," he announced without preamble. "You two," he glared at the Longbottoms, "didn't see me sharing it with anyone outside the Division."

"I never see you outside the office, sir," Frank said with a smile no one could quite return.

"This," Moody went on, tapping the parchment with his wand and causing most of the names to vanish, "is Voldemort's suspected inner circle, and _this_," another tap, still fewer names, "is a list of inner circle members with property suited to hostage-holding. We'll start here. Dumbledore's on his way back from Peru as we speak, so I'll be giving assignments."

He made short work of them, dividing everyone into pairs just as Dumbledore would have done, and probably in the same combinations, except–

"McKinnon and Black, Goyle's farm in Market Rasen."

"Moody." James's voice was raw with strain and aggression, and Sirius might not have recognized it as his best friend if James hadn't been standing next to him.

"That's it, everyone. You know your work."

People started to move into their pairings, but James's voice stopped them in their tracks.

"Don't you dare," he snarled. "_Moody_."

The two of them were staring at each other fiercely and everyone held their breaths. Sirius was trying to work out how best to support James on this one, and whether that was really the right thing at all, when Remus broke in.

"It's fine," he said. "James can go with Peter to the LeStranges' summer cottage. I've got something else I need to check."

Moody glared hexes at Remus, but didn't object.

"Right, mate," Peter said, putting a tentative hand on James's shoulder. "Let's go."

Sirius barely had time to worry about whether James should be really going before James and Pete had Disapparated. Remus was already gone, and Marlene was standing next to Sirius, biting her trembling lip.

"Let's go bring her back, Sirius," she said, her eyes fierce behind a sheen of tears. "For James."

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**A/N:** Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

Peter and James stopped off at James and Lily's place long enough for James to grab his Invisibility Cloak, and then they were standing on a windswept, loamy cliff in Devon, the Cloak whipping about their ankles. James reached down to twitch it closed, and their feet disappeared from view.

Over the wind, Peter could hear the crashing of waves against the rocks below, and he was glad they weren't closer to the cliff's edge. This wasn't the moment to be afraid of heights.

James had already set off, and even though he was shorter than Sirius or Remus, his strides were long enough that Peter stumbled to keep up.

"Where's the cottage?" he panted over the wind and waves.

James didn't speak, or even look at him. He just jerked his chin forward, muscles clenching in his jaw.

If he squinted, Peter could sort of see what James meant. In the air ahead, there was a weird kind of haze that made the grass and sky and sea go a bit blurry. Peter couldn't have spotted the Disillusionment on his own, but of course James could. Probably anyone could.

James stopped suddenly and started tracing shapes in the air with his wand, and Peter guessed they'd reached the edge of whatever protection the LeStranges had put around the place. He'd been friends with James too long to ask if he needed help, and James, of course, didn't ask. Peter didn't think James had ever asked for his help.

It wasn't right to be resentful now, Peter scolded himself. Lily was missing.

But it hadn't escaped his notice that he'd been the last one to hear the news. Remus had obviously been with James at the fight, and then they'd gone straight to Sirius as soon as they'd noticed Lily missing. Peter probably wasn't even the first person James had Flooed.

James's wand jerked, and a ball of red light streaked towards the house. With a hissed word, James summoned it back. The magic was obviously costing him a lot of effort, and he was grinding his teeth and sweating by the time the light touched the tip of his wand and vanished.

In the same instant, a large stone cottage appeared on the edge of the cliff, surrounded by unnaturally tidy hedgerows.

"Charming," Peter whispered. "What was that red thing?"

"Alarm system," James breathed, wiping his forehead. "A good one. Someone's in, but they don't know we're here."

"Do you think she's here?" Peter asked, and then kicked himself. What a stupid question. Even if there had been any way to tell, it wasn't right to get James's hopes up.

James's breath hitched, but he didn't answer. Crouched under the Cloak, they moved together towards the house.

* * *

It didn't take Sirius long to realize that Goyle's farm was empty. Marlene kept her wand out, but after a few quick charms, Sirius was confident enough to walk up to the farmhouse and peer in at the windows, cupping his hands around his eyes to block out the sun's glare.

Inside, the kitchen looked almost normal. There was a cauldron hanging in the fireplace, and a large grey cat was curled up in a patch of sunlight on an open _Daily Prophet_. It was just a nice, normal, country farm. Owned by murderers. How rustic.

They skirted the house, Marlene flinching and cautious as Sirius strode ahead. He could tell his boldness was irritating her – she kept tutting at his back – and he did not let himself think that it was exactly how Lily would have reacted.

A few more charms told them that there was no subterranean property, and a quick look inside the barn revealed only a few sulky cows, a small herd of sheep, and a dozing plough horse.

"She's not here," Sirius bit out, but of course Marlene could see that. She sighed and let her wand drop to her side. Sirius knew they should go back, but the thought of returning to James with nothing made him feel slightly sick.

"Well," Marlene said after a moment, "are we going to make ourselves useful?"

Before Sirius could ask what she meant, she'd flicked her wand at the barn doors. They swung open with a cheerful squeak of hinges. A sheep bleated uncertainly.

"Well?" Marlene repeated. Her eyes glinted, but not with tears.

Sirius came as close as he could to a grin.

"Yes, we bloody are," he muttered, and hit a cow in the rear with a savage Stinging Hex.

With a bovine groan, the beast stumbled towards the barn door, wreaking havoc amongst the anxious sheep.

Sirius sent a few more hexes to speed them on their way, and before long, he and Marlene were alone in the hay-and-manure-smelling dark, looking out at the animals shambling away from the Goyle farm.

Sirius wouldn't tell James that they'd been pranking whilst searching for his kidnapped fiancé, but at least Sirius himself felt slightly less useless. Slightly.

"So where did Remus go?" Marlene asked, dusting off her hands with a satisfied nod.

"Sorry?"

"Remus." Marlene raised her eyebrows at him, as if she thought him slow. She was Ravenclaw, he remembered, so she probably did. "He said he had to check something else. _Can_ you tell me, or is it one of your little Marauder secrets?" She rolled her eyes to show him what she thought of that.

Sirius ignored the jibe. It bloody well _wasn't_ one of their little Marauder secrets, and where the hell _had_ Moony gone? In eight years, he'd got used to Remus saying he had to check something else and then dashing off to the library. But there was nothing about the current situation that warranted the use of a book, unless there was some dusty old spell to find bossy but loveable gingers who'd been abducted by a murderous enemy.

"Yeah," Sirius lied before his hesitation could give him away. "Marauder secret, you know." He gave her a jaunty wink that he was sure fell flat.

Everyone was paranoid these days, the Order not excepted, and it wouldn't do to have the others questioning Moony's outside activities. Not everyone was so accepting of lycanthropy.

Marlene just rolled her eyes again.

"Whoever told you lot that mysterious men are sexy was lying," she told him, flicking her wand absently and erasing their steps in the muddy ground around the farmhouse.

"But my dashing good looks," Sirius said, forcing himself to grin, "those are sexy, right?"

Marlene smirked and they both Disapparated.

* * *

Lily's body went limp on the stone floor and she heaved a ragged gasp. As her nerves stopped screaming, she felt cold sweat on her back and under her arms, a slow-burning ache in her joints, and the raw agony of her throat. The muscles in her back spasmed with the aftershocks of Cruciatus, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

The Death Eater laughed. Lily had worked out that it was a woman, but there hadn't been time for anything else. The Death Eater hadn't wasted time at all – just dragged Lily out of one cell and into a bigger one, then started torturing her. She hadn't even asked any questions. Lily was having trouble thinking, but she was pretty sure there were supposed to be questions. Unless the Death Eater just liked to hear her scream.

As if to prove it, the Death Eater hit her with Cruciatus again.

It could have lasted hours, or days, or merely seconds. When Lily heard the woman's laughter over the sound of her own screams, she realized the torture had stopped.

She kept thinking she should be able to brace herself against it, but it was impossible – the pain reached inside every corner of your body and _tore_ – through living tissue and twisting muscle and hard, shattering bone. Lights burst behind her eyes, and she couldn't see – couldn't think about anything but when the pain might come again.

The Death Eater was talking.

"Not so clever now, are you, Evans?" she sneered behind her mask. "Not so perfect. Not so _pretty_."

She brandished her wand, and Lily's vision was filled with starbursts and her ears rang.

"If they could see you now!" the Death Eater crowed as Lily curled into herself, quivering from the latest attack, already shuddering against the next one. "Their precious Head Girl. You're just a Mudblood that's learnt to walk upright. Weak and useless. There's no magic for you anymore."

Something started to connect along the deadened synapses in Lily's mind.

Then her face was suddenly wrenched upwards and she forced her eyes open to stare into the shadowed eyes of the woman's mask.

"Say it," the Death Eater hissed from behind marble lips. "Say, 'there's no magic for me anymore.'"

Lily would not say it. What she said instead was, "Queenie?"

Her voice was reed thin and torn from screaming, but Queenie obviously heard her, and proved her right by throwing her back onto the stone and kicking her in the stomach. Lily retched as the breath rushed out of her.

"That wasn't clever, either, Evans," Queenie said, her voice deathly cold.

No, Lily agreed in her own mind, resting her forehead against rough, cool stone. It wasn't. There was no chance Queenie would let her go now.

Since there was no chance, Lily pressed her one advantage.

"Oh my actual God," she mumbled into the floor. "Tell me this is not about me getting Head Girl over you."

A hex hit her like a slap in the face, and then she realized that Queenie had actually slapped her face. Lily laughed, a low, hysterical sound.

"Shut up!" Queenie shrieked. "You stupid bitch! Of course it's not about that! As if I care what that Muggle-loving, blood-traitor Dumbledore thinks!"

She grabbed Lily's face again, and Lily forced herself to keep smiling.

"This is about you and your _kind_, invading our world, covering it with your slime, taking what real witches and wizards should have and making it filthy." She flung Lily away again, then started stomping up and down the dungeon, looking like a spoiled brat of a Slytherin prefect even in a Death Eater's robes and mask.

"You think you can come into _our_ world, take _our_ jobs, marry _our_ men, and dilute _our_ children with your dirty blood? Your Mudblood hands aren't fit to touch us! How dare you? How _dare_ you?"

She whirled to glare at Lily. Incredibly, she actually seemed to be waiting for a response.

After a moment of sinking realization, Lily croaked her suspicion aloud.

"Voldemort has no idea I'm here, does he?"

"_You dare speak his name_?" Queenie's scream echoed off the dungeon walls. An instant later, so did Lily's.

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**A/N:** Thanks to those who have reviewed this story! Let me know what you think of this chapter.


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